GPs/Internists Focusing on a certain specialty

You can choose to do so, but you have to be careful in your advertising and what you call yourself. You'll be at a competitive disadvantage since you won't be listed as such from insurers, you'll be an internist.

Its not hard to get certified to do Botox or other cosmetic stuff, usually just a weekend course.

Your problem is that you are a ticking timebomb for a lawsuit. You miss a skin cancer and it is an open and shut case. They just grill you what certifications you have in dermatology and drag some BC dermatologist to court to testify against you.

DrBowtie said:

You can choose to do so, but you have to be careful in your advertising and what you call yourself. You'll be at a competitive disadvantage since you won't be listed as such from insurers, you'll be an internist.

Its not hard to get certified to do Botox or other cosmetic stuff, usually just a weekend course.

Your problem is that you are a ticking timebomb for a lawsuit. You miss a skin cancer and it is an open and shut case. They just grill you what certifications you have in dermatology and drag some BC dermatologist to court to testify against you.

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This. You can practice whatever you want, provided you feel comfortable enough to do it with patients. Just don't expect:

1) anyone to insure you
2) lawyers to give you the decency of a reach around when they **** you in the ass.

Cardiology and GI aren't residencies, they are fellowships. Without fellowship training it is unlikely you will be able to bill insurance companies for care outside the scope of your initial residency.

If you are interested in dermatology, there are AOA residencies in dermatology. If you work hard you should be able to get into one, although you may have to do a FP or IM residency first. ACGME dermatology residencies are nearly impossible to get into as a DO.

That said if you are really interested in aesthetics, there are loads of opportunities to do aesthetic medicine in a cash-based setting regardless of what residency you pursue. You won't be assessing things like skin cancer like a dermatologist, but you can certainly focus your practice around making people look better with botox, juvederm, lipoplasty, etc.

From personal experience you DO NOT need a dermatology residency to get malpractice coverage for a medical spa/aesthetics practice. A family member with board certification in another specialty was able to get separate malpractice for a medical spa very easily for about 15k a year. Every medical spa in our area is run by a non-dermatologist (ENT surgeon, EM, IM, FP, etc). There is a huge shortage of derms in my state so they can make ridiculous bank by practicing actual medicine (ie skin cancer identification and removal, pimple popping, etc).

I am talking like 500-800k as a moh's guy. Absolutely nuts, if you ask me.

How long is derm after the 3 yrs of fm?